Day: March 11, 2022

The Fog of War

The “fog of war,” or, why Slate needs to hire a fact-checker:

On Feb. 24, the day the fighting in Ukraine began, more than 130,000 protesters were arrested; about 30 of them now face criminal charges, with maximum prison sentence of up to five years, according to OVD-Info, a protest-monitoring group.

https://slate.com/technology/2022/03/russia-protesters-arrests.html

According to the real (not imaginary) OVD Info, 1,965 protesters were detained by Russian police on February 24 — not 130,000!

https://ovdinfo.org/articles/2022/02/25/net-voyne-itogi-akcii-protiv-voyny-s-ukrainoy-24-fevralya

The emphasis is mine. Photo by the Russian Reader

The Black Square

An Open Letter from Russian Culture and Art Workers

Art and culture workers across Russia have been signing an open letter for peace in Ukraine.

This page once contained an open letter from culture and art workers, stating their opinion on the “special military operation,”* which had been signed by more than 18,000 people. On March 4, 2022, the “law on fakes” was adopted, stipulating a fine or a term of imprisonment [for publicly speaking the truth about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine]. The process of collecting signatures has now been suspended, and the text of the letter and signatures have been concealed for the safety of all signatories.

* The government forbids us from using any other term for the “special military operation.”

We remind you that according to Article 54 of the Russian Federal Constitution, “[a] law introducing or aggravating responsibility shall not have retrospective effect,” and “[n]o one may bear responsibility for [an] action which was not regarded as a crime when it was committed.”

Source: Spectate.ru. Translated by the Russian Reader